Firefighters will return to the Black Jack fireground near Kuaotunu on the Coromandel Peninsula tomorrow to continue extinguishing the vegetation fire that began on Saturday.

Fire and Emergency's drone crew will carry out a second round of thermal imaging flights tonight, looking for new hotspots and checking the sites where crews and helicopters have been working today.

Incident Controller Shane Bromley said that ground crews had dug out most of the deepseated burning that was identified in last night's flights, and had also found several new hotspots during their patrols today.

He thanked the local community and visitors to the area for their support of the firefighting operations and their patience with restricted access along Black Jack Road.

"I would also like to remind people not to use drones in the area during the day when helicopters are flying. We often see people using drones in this popular area over summer, but while we have aircraft working on the fire we would like everyone to keep their drones on the ground. Otherwise we have to stand our helicopters down for safety reasons."

The fire has burned an estimated nine hectares of vegetation on steep terrain along Black Jack Road. It has been challenging for firefighters to work on the slopes in hot and windy conditions.

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